Founder's Keepershttp://www.founders-keepers.us
Keeping an eye on the Government and upholding the Founder's principlesTue, 31 Mar 2015 00:49:17 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1RFRA Bigotry in Indiana is Happeninghttp://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/30/rfra-bigotry/
http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/30/rfra-bigotry/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 00:41:46 +0000http://www.founders-keepers.us/?p=16567Its just not happening in the way everyone thought it would. The people who were afraid of discrimination due to religious bigotry, have turned into bigots themselves.

Personally, I always like to call a spade a spade. What I’m seeing happen against Indiana is exactly what the people who dislike the RFRA were afraid would happen to the LGBT community. All because a Religious Freedom Restoration act was passed in a Conservative state, despite the fact that 29 other states have a RFRA of some sort themselves and there has been a Federal RFRA for 2 decades. What is being displayed for the world to see is not a battle of Right vs. Wrong, but a battle of Liberal vs. Conservative. Let me lay it all out in one place, so everyone can see what I see.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, released an article in the Washington Post. In it he called the Indiana law, and laws like it in “dozens of other states”, “dangerous”. This is all, of course, predisposed to the line of thought that these RFRA laws encourage neighbors to discriminate against each other because of their sexual orientation.

All of these are examples of action from Companies and Individuals based on political bias and agenda, instead of facts. They would have you believe that this is not a “Political Issue”, but instead it is a “Religious Issue”. While there is an issue with Religion in this country, and mainly with this Generation, these RFRA laws are not a problem because of “Religious Issues”. The problem with these RFRA laws boils down to be a very “Political” one. What we see happening is a bunch of people, decrying bigotry and discrimination, becoming bigots with their boycotts against Indiana and not applying the same degree of ire to other states with similar laws.

]]>http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/30/rfra-bigotry/feed/0Some Indiana SB 101 (RFRA) synopsis.http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/27/some-indiana-sb-101-rfra-synopsis/
http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/27/some-indiana-sb-101-rfra-synopsis/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 14:41:43 +0000http://www.founders-keepers.us/?p=15761There’s a lot of misunderstanding about this new law, because people are reading it as plain English when they shouldn’t.

Below I’m going to go through the three sections that people seem to be having the most problem understanding, Sections 8, 9 and 11.

“Sec. 8. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a governmental entity may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.

(b) A governmental entity may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion only if the governmental entity demonstrates that application of the burden to the person:

(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest;

And

(2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”

This only effects Government interactions with Religion. This has absolutely no bearing on Person to Person interactions within the law.

“Sec. 9. A person whose exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened, by a violation of this chapter may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding, regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding. If the relevant governmental entity is not a party to the proceeding, the governmental entity has an unconditional right to intervene in order to respond to the person’s invocation of this chapter.”

My Interpretation of this: If the Government of Indiana is substantially burdening a Person’s free exercise of religion, they may invoke this chapter in a suit against the government. If a Person invokes this chapter against another person then the Government must interject to determine if the person can invoke this law.

“Sec. 11. This chapter is not intended to, and shall not be construed or interpreted to, create a claim or private cause of action against any private employer by any applicant, employee, or former employee.”

At lot of people are interpreting this section as meaning employee’s have no right at pursuing punishment against an employer for terminating them due to the employer’s religious beliefs. That’s not what that is saying, in regards to the rest of the bill. What its saying in regards to the rest of the bill is that Private Employers are not covered by this RFRA. It spells out pretty clearly that the RFRA is only to be used in terms of Government and its interactions with people/businesses.

The main issue at hand with all of this, as I see it, is that people are reading this as though its plain English. Its not. It’s legalese. Which is to say that it IS English, but its put down in such a way so that judges will interpret it the way it is intended to be interpreted.

]]>http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/27/some-indiana-sb-101-rfra-synopsis/feed/0What is a RFRA?http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/26/what-is-a-rfra/
http://www.founders-keepers.us/blog/2015/03/26/what-is-a-rfra/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 02:49:53 +0000http://www.founders-keepers.us/?p=15639And why is everyone so upset that Indiana just signed an RFRA into law?

A RFRA is a Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It is a law designed to prevent other laws from restricting a person’s free exercise of religion. The Federal RFRA was introduced to Congress by Senator Chuck Schumer (D – NY) and signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993. In 2003 it was amended to only effect the federal government and its entities, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. due to a Supreme Court decision in City of Boerne v. Flores in 1997.

“Why did we need a RFRA?” you may ask. You can thank Employment Division v. Smith for Mr. Schumer’s bill that introduced the U.S. to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Supreme Court upheld Oregon law that allowed them to fire Smith for smoking Peyote on the job (a government Job) despite his religious beliefs.

What most people don’t seem to understand is that this doesn’t give people free reign to discriminate against others simply because of their religious beliefs. In fact all it does is protect people from governmental persecution based on them freely exercising their religion’s practices. Jim Bob Johnson who own’s a Coffee Shop down on Main Street won’t now be allowed to just fire Mary because she’s in a relationship with Sally.

Sadly that is the exact line of thought that has so many people up in arms over this. If they would spend five minutes reading Indiana’s SB 101, they’d find that it simply doesn’t work like that. It specifies, quite clearly throughout, that it only applies to Government entities and their interactions with “persons”. It doesn’t open the door for people to discriminate against people, it simply closes the door for the Government of Indiana to discriminate against people because of their religious beliefs.

I came to the hard truth that I’ve never truly had a relationship with Jesus. I was always under the illusion that your relationship with Jesus is relative to your relationship with Church. It is not. It is deeplypersonal. Below is my story, that I’ve been prompted to share with a wider audience. He wants my story to effect and save others.

This past weekend I went on an expedition called Man Camp with my church, Crossroads. Prior to the initial sign up I set my alarm for 5:50 AM so that I might get signed up and go, but like a boy I delayed my awake time a half hour after the sign ups and signed up for the wait list. Looking back on this I think God intended for me to instead be on this specific trip, with the Wolf Pack I was assigned to. What happened this past weekend was amazing, liberating and life changing!

I went into the experience only expecting to meet some guys and get to know some new people. What I got instead was a walloping from Christ. He absolutely singled me out and he let me know he was all in if I was as well.

Thus my journey began on finding someone from M*A*S*H* to talk to. The M*A*S*H* group was a group of prayer warriors, there specifically for people to reach out to. I searched out, only to see them continuously redeeming other souls and hearing “now is not the time”. So I kept walking from our camp site to the barn, back and forth. Finally I was staring into our fire and thought “If I continue down the path I’m on, this is what waits for me”. I walked back up to the Barn, continuing my search.

After the end of an event I saw Michael walking away from the side Barn doors and introduced myself. Michael grabbed Steve and we talked. I opened up to these two strangers about my problems with Lust addiction and how I always heard Glenn Beck say that “these are other men’s daughters, would you want some other man to treat your daughter like this” which always hit me hard because I have a daughter of my own. That I’ve tried for years to beat this on my own, only to be sucked back in.

We talked some more and they helped me hear what God wanted me to say and so we prayed. In that prayer I asked for Jesus’s help in combating the addiction. I asked him to save me. This was beyond powerful and drove me to tears. I cannot be more thankful to Michael and Steve, they truly are warriors for Christ.

The most powerful moment came later that night, when my group was sharing during our Challenge Coin time. It can only be described as the most epic 2 hour campfire talk ever. We all opened up, and prayed together. Most of all, I opened up completely to these 11 strangers and laid all of this out for them as well. I had already shared earlier that I had been saved, this was me describing to them what I’ve been saved from. My Wolf Pack surrounded me, laid hands on me and prayed over me. I was absolutely driven to tears of joy.

While handing out our coins our group leader gave each of us a word of encouragement. To me he said “Darren, I think you know what you need to do”. Some may have seen this as underwhelming, but it was the most powerful thing he could have said to me. It was like Jesus was screaming at me, telling me to just listen to Him.

After arriving home on Sunday I had some time to reflect on everything that happened. I was still pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing and I was thinking on what I’d always heard Glenn Beck say and at that moment I heard “Those are God’s daughters”. This was a powerful revelation that brought me to my knees and to tears.

I am absolutely beyond grateful for these men and this experience. I’m excited to have been saved and continue on from THAT point to live for Jesus. I cannot wait to see what He has planned.